DPU_DOCKET_12-76-A

WORCESTER THROWN UNDER THE BUS: The DPU plans to address privacy and data access issues in 2015 (currently deployed household privacy & data is unprotected) and cybersecurity issues before the end of 2014. The DPU did not specify how or if they plan to address health issues. See 3/26/14 memo.

Governor Patrick and the DPU just launched the process to mandate wireless so-called ‘smart’ meters on every Massachusetts home and business. It is urgent that all concerned invest just a few minutes in the next day or two to protect your family’s health, privacy, wallet ($7.5 BILLION), safety, customer choice, environment and your neighborhood from the proliferation of thousands of ‘smart’ meter data towers.

Submit a Comment (must be received by 1/17)

Ask friends to Submit Comments

Participate in Discussion Panel (request by 1/17)

Suggested comment format below. Feel free to construct your own.

Also, just a reminder that the Worcester Zoning Board will mis-apply the Telecommunications Act of 1996 regarding the Tatnuck ‘smart’ meter data cell-like tower (12 of 12 in all). See you there on Mon, Jan. 13th at 5:30 at City Hall, Room 309 (Articles: WorcesterMag & Worcester Telegram)

Governor Patrick and the DPU issued an order calling for comments and discussion panel participants. 12-76-A states that all Mass. utilities must submit a plan based on the premise that ‘smart’ meters “must be in place.” The deadline for both comments and panel participation is 5 p.m., Friday January 17th.

This is a major step toward state-mandated wireless ‘smart’ meters. Four major ‘smart’ meter pilots to the tune of upwards of $100 Million have been initiated. The largest, National Grid’s has not officially begun. Unitil’s in Fitchburg was a “dismal failure,” and NStar’s is failing due to participants dropping out.

The purported goal of ‘smart’ meters is to reduce usage at peak times, the tool to accomplish this is time varying rates. While charging twelve times the base rate does accomplish this goal during air conditioning peak periods, everyday peak usage has not been shown to be reduced. The victims of the peak rate increase (8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Mass.) are stay-at-home moms, the disabled and elderly and non-traditional shift workers.

The meters and related wireless utility infrastructure carry serious cost, safety, security, privacy, green-washing and health risks which will burden Mass. residents for generations. The report “Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid” scrutinizes widespread misinformation about the alleged benefits of smart utility meters among government officials, environmentalists, and ratepayers.

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine has updated its recommendationto a call for “A moratorium on smart meters and implementation of safer technology.” AAEM stated the “vast majority of cases were not electromagnetically hypersensitive until after installation of smart meters….smart meters may have unique characteristics that lower people’s threshold for symptom development.”

Your comments must be 1) received on paper and also 2) must be e-mailed before 5 p.m. on January 17th. The limit is 25 pages but one short page is also effective.

Sample template:

To: Mark D. Marini, Secretary

Department of Public Utilities

One South Station, 5th Floor

Boston, Massachusetts 02110

&

via email:

dpu.efiling@state.ma.us and

mark.marini@state.ma.us

It would be very helpful if you would cc HaltMAsmartMeters@gmail.com

From: (your name, address, phone and email. Note you may direct the DPU not to post this information on the DPU website by sending two versions labeled ‘for paper file’ which includes the above and ‘to be posted on internet’ which includes only your name )

RE:DPU Docket 12-76-A, December 23, 2013,

Investigation by the Department of Public Utilities on its own Motion into Modernization of the Electric Grid.

Date: (today’s date)

While I agree that the electric grid requires updating, I am registering my fervent opposition to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts DPU’s position that ‘smart’ meters “must be in place before all of the benefits of grid modernization can be fully realized.” No further taxpayer and ratepayer moneys should be misused promoting wireless ‘smart’ meter technology’s widespread and unresolved cost, security, safety, privacy, greenwashing, health, cell-like tower and liability issues. It is imperative that neither unproven ‘Smart’ meters nor their invasive infrastructure be mandated by the Commonwealth.

My primary concerns are (choose one or many):

~ Health: (EHS ElectroMagnetic Hypersensitivity) The docket states: “The Department must ensure that electric distribution companies provide safe and reliable electric service to customers.” The burden of proof is on the industry to prove that the meters are safe.

NOTE: HaltMAsmartMeters.org has a large document/resource list, if you would like assistance please contact Patricia999Burke@gmail.com. If your submission is large and/or complicated a summary page should be first.

Participate in panel discussions

E-mail request deadline 5 p.m. 1/17

If past performance is an indication of future action the public MUST be represented in order to protect our families, present and future. The panels are scheduled for late February.

“While the Department will endeavor to honor requests to participate on a panel, in the interests of administrative efficiency the subject matter and composition of the panels will be subject to the Department’s discretion.”

Individuals who wish to participate on a panel must: (1) provide their name, complete contact information (i.e., address, telephone number, and email address) and affiliation, if any; (2) summarize their qualifications; (3) identify the subject matter on which they wish to comment; and (4) briefly summarize the conclusions, opinions, and basis for the subject matter on which they wish to comment.

Do not let the above paragraph intimidate you. One paragraph will suffice. Email it before 5 p.m. on January 17:

2 Responses to DPU_DOCKET_12-76-A

Thank you SO much for bringing this to my attention. I hope I’m getting all the particulars right, as I am rushing to get the snail mail there by 1/17. Here’s my letter, below. Please feel free to use it, or modify it, if anyone wants to share this in any way. Also, if I’m getting any facts about this HaltMASmartMeters initiative wrong, you can email me at info@stopsmartmetersGeorgia.Org with corrections. Again, thank you for your efforts, and I will spread the word!

You should not even be considering mandating “smart” meters, as they are anything but. Here are some of the many problems these digital electric meters have presented around the world:

“Smart” meters have started numerous fires, so many that, at one point, ConEd stopped installing them, at least for a time. In one Decatur home, the “smart” meter fried all of the electric wires, causing at least $10,000 worth of damage. They’ve been known to ruin all types of electrical devices, including computers, flat screens, and kitchen appliances.

“Smart” meters, according to PG & E, can radiate a home up to 190,000 times a day! That is much more radiofrequency radiation (RF) that you’d get from a cell phone, and now we’re discovering that cell phones can cause cancer of the eye, ear, breast, and brain. This kind of RF can also lead to leukemia in children.

“Smart” meters, which not only emit radiation, but EMF as well, can cause symtoms such as ringing in the ears, insomnia, and heart palpitations. This is the short list; check out this link to see the myriad other symptoms that can accompany getting a “smart” meter on your home or business: http://emfsafetynetwork.org/smart-meters/smart-meter-health-complaints/.

“Smart” meters are easily hackable, according to a study out of the University of South Carolina, and the “smart” grid is “stupid” for this reason, according to past CIA director, James Woolsey. USC found that anyone with a laptop and the knowhow could drive by a building with a “smart” meter and figure out the usage. This means the criminal element could find out if you are home, detect you’re not, and rob you blind – or worse.

“Smart” meters are basically electronic eavesdropping devices. They send an exact record of every electrical movement that happens in one’s home or business back to power company employees (and anyone who can intercept that transfer of data). That is unconstitutional and, in some states, illegal.

One employee of Sensus-brand “smart” meters said that these devices regularly caught on fire, and could charge up to SEVEN TIMES more than the true electrical use in the home or business to which they are attached. That is not what a public service commission looks for in an electric meter, to say the least.

As I said, this is not everything that’s wrong with these “Spy and Fry” meters, but I think you’ll agree that it’s enough to refuse to allow them to be installed on any home or business in the great state of Massachusetts. Please do the right thing for your citizens, and halt the attempt to make them mandatory, because you’ll be making fires, sickness, and crime mandatory for a large percentage of your population, and that is unacceptable in the extreme.